


In the Dark

by KumaJeanne



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Sharing a Bed, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25266244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KumaJeanne/pseuds/KumaJeanne
Summary: Since a particularly tough fight against a super-villain, Ladybug has nightmares. A lot of it - to the point of affecting her capacities as a superheroine. The only times she can sleep peacefully is when she falls asleep in the arms of her partner, Chat Noir.After their first night shared together, Chat Noir comes up with an idea: slipping into her partner's room so she could finally enjoy nights without nightmares. Ladybug accepts, but with one condition: that these nights in which they'll have to share a bed take place in total darkness so that their secret identities are preserved.Masks fall better in the dark.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Dans le Noir](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044566) by [KumaJeanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KumaJeanne/pseuds/KumaJeanne). 



> Hey guys!  
> This work is a translation of my work "Dans le Noir", published on AO3 and Wattpad. It was originally published in French, but I translated it myself with the help of @phoenixplume117. English is not my first language so I hope my translation won't make my text too quirky... I hope you will enjoy it anyway! 
> 
> Short author note: in the show, Chat Noir can see in the dark, but it is not the case in this work. This is a slight plot hole, due to the fact I had not seen the episode in which he displays that power. Please ignore it!
> 
> Thanks for reading!

This story began in a very classical way: Hawkmoth had Monsieur Ramier akumatized once  again. Consequently, Monsieur Pigeon was causing trouble in Paris for the 47 th  time  that  year. 

It  was nothing new for Ladybug and Chat Noir, whom the whole capital expected to see flying  over the roofs to bring the pigeon man back to his senses from one moment to another.  Meanwhile, Parisians scanned the sky under their umbrellas, despite the bright blue sky over  their head, to avoid the droppings of the many birds that followed the Akumatized. 

But this time, Ladybug was not flying. It was rather the opposite: she was crushed against a  chimney after she failed to land on the roof with her yo-yo. 

“M’lady!” Chat Noir exclaimed as the superheroine let herself down miserably on the roof she  was supposed to land on. 

Ladybug saw her partner's silhouette and blond hair hide the sun from her. She wanted to get  up, to prove to him that everything was fine; that there was nothing to panic about, a failed  landing due to a defective yo-yo - even if it was well known that Ladybug had never suffered  even one in two years of service -, but impossible. Even if she wanted to, she could no longer  move a muscle. 

"I counted," said Chat Noir. “ No less than 36  yawns since the start of this mission. The Bugaboo  I once knew had more energy than that.” 

“Sorry, Chat Noir... Could you give me a hand?” Ladybug sighed, raising an arm for her  partner to catch. 

“You don't even have the strength to  object to  me calling you 'Bugaboo',” pointed out the feline  hero. “If you are going to crash into the next chimney we fly over, I’d rather not." 

Chat Noir’s eyes narrowed while Ladybug  painstakingly got  back on her feet by herself. 

“What’s going on, m’lady? Why do I feel like even a whole barrel of coffee wouldn’t be enough  to wake you up these days?” 

The superheroine frowned. No, she did not have the energy for a questioning session today. 

“It’s none of your business, Chat Noir. It doesn’t concern you.” 

“Actually, capturing the akuma shamelessly exploiting the negative feelings of this poor Mr.  Ramier will be much harder without you, so it  _ does  _ concern me. Working alone is not really my  thing.” 

_ Touché _ , she thought. 

Still, she could not bring herself to tell Chat Noir the truth. She had hardly slept for a week –  more precisely, since the day they had faced  the  particularly fierce enemy, Flamethrower.  Hawkmoth sent him the day Marinette and all her class were at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, to  learn how to bake fresh bread. 

This supervillain was born from the negative feelings of a circus performer, freshly arrived in  Paris.  Uninformed  about regulations regarding the flames he threw from his own mouth for the  amusement of tourists near the Seine, he was promptly fined by  Officer  Roger two days after  his arrival; thus making him the perfect target for Hawkmoth and his Akumas.  It was from this frustration, which had already given birth to so many supervillains, one of the  toughest enemies Ladybug and Chat Noir  had ever faced  was born. 

Ladybug had already  battled  villains able to drown Paris under ice or water, raise armies, create  illusions, and influence the Parisians’ minds. She honestly thought she had seen it all. 

Compared to all of these previously encountered villains, Flamethrower used a much less  sophisticated way to reach his goals. And yet, sometimes, the simplest techniques were the  more efficient. 

Flamethrower  had  set Paris on fire. 

He started with the Paris ring road,  isolating  the city; then he set fire to emblematic monuments  : the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower... and the Place des Vosges, near where the Dupain-Cheng bakery  was located. Her bakery – her house, her home, her parents and friends.  The  fire spread at a  frightening speed. 

A direct attack on the girl under the mask. 

Until now, supervillain's attacks never had caused any casualties;  but that night was the closest  they had ever come to it . Ladybug still felt the flames’ heat while Chat Noir and  she  tried to  save as  many  Parisians as possible from the fire s ; the anxiety devouring her guts as  Flamethrower was nowhere to be found; the stress of not knowing what would happen to her  bakery if she lost more time than she already had. Fear,  and  anguish,  while  her Miraculous  rang  more and more frequently: all of this prevented her from understanding how her freshly  invoked Lucky Charm could work. 

In short, chaos was everywhere: in Paris, but also in her own mind. 

It was only thanks to Chat Noir that she  had been  able to calm down. By cataclysming debris,  her partner  had  liberated several Parisians, among  them had been  her parents and friends: it  was only at that moment that she understood how to use her Lucky Charm and capture the  akuma. Thankfully, the mission ended well: thanks to her powers, flames disappeared,  monuments were resurrected  and injuries on the bodies of civilians  had been healed . 

But deep down, she knew this mission  had  not  ended  up in a normal way. It affected her more  than any other mission ever  had . Despite her  restorative  powers, Paris ended up under a thick  layer of soot, which had taken five days to clean up. The penalty was doubled up for her  family’s apartment, above the bakery. Soot had become so embedded in the whole house that  no one could live in the apartment anymore. Even though the bakery was still in service,  Marinette and her parents had to temporarily move in an apartment usually rented to tourists  on a famous online platform, hastily found by Mayor Bourgeois as a compensation for the  degradation of their home. 

The accommodation found by Mayor Bourgeois was quite nice, and Marinette’s new room was  just as lovely. And yet ,  since that  night, she  had been  unable to sleep.  The very idea of  sleeping peacefully  was no more than a distant memory, because of the  nightmares involving her relatives stuck in burning bakeries that harassed her every night. 

But how could she admit in front of Chat Noir that the brave, the strong Ladybug was shaking  in her bed every night, with flames dancing in front of her once her eyes were closed?  She tried her best to erase the memory of these nights while putting a smile on her face and  patting Chat Noir’s cheek. 

“How could I abandon you,  Chaton ? Come on, let’s go capture Monsieur Ramier’s akuma and  let’s get this over with before I start snoring to his face.” 

And she threw her yo-yo to run after the supervillain, putting an end to any possibility of a  conversation. 

* * *

“Spots off.” 

Due to Monsieur Pigeon being tougher than usual, it was only when night had already fallen  that Marinette slipped through her window of her new room to let herself fall back on the bed.  Her parents were already gone to bed, thinking that she was at Alya’s place to finish a  presentation. Tikki appeared next to the teenage girl and both winced at the dark circles under  Marinette’s eyes, which were starting to reach a critical size. 

“I’m glad the mask hides this, otherwise Chat Noir would have been even more worried...”  Marinette sighed. 

“Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?” asked Tikki. 

“I’ll have to, Tikki... I can’t take it anymore. Those nightmares are impeding my abilities as a  superhero...” 

She was about to lay on her bed when she met her own gaze in the mirror. She was going to  need some concealer to hide those dark circles, a lot of it. 

“I’m supposed to hold the Ladybug Miraculous. Not the Panda’s!” she groaned, rushing to the  light switch to hide her own reflection. 

Her brand-new bedroom, its polka dots curtains, and the only picture of Adrien on the wall to  have survived the soot disappeared in the dark. She slipped under her sheets, laying on her  back to stare at the ceiling. 

_ I can do it _ , she thought _. I  _ _ will  _ _ sleep through  _ _ the  _ _ night.  _

“Good night, Tikki,” she whispered. 

“Good night, Marinette,” the Kwami answered. 

The tiny spirit laid comfortably next to her, and soon enough, her breathing became calmer. As  usual, Tikki fell asleep faster after a mission. Her holder wished she could do such a thing.  Marinette was alone. She kept staring at the ceiling, but in the darkness of her room, it was as  black as an ink stain. She could barely distinguish the room’s furniture.  Darkness and Tikki’s regular breathing should have made Marinette sleepy, and tiredness was  making her eyes sore, but she could not get herself to sleep. She knew what would happen if  she closed her eyes. 

Fire. Fear that super-villains even stronger than Flamethrower appeared in her sleep. The  mighty need to verify her parents were safe in their bed and not stuck in a burning bakery. And  then, a harsh sleep, cut by nightmares where she failed to defeat Flamethrower over and over  again. 

Just by thinking of it, her breathing sped up. Suddenly, she lacked air. She stood up in her bed,  tempted by the idea of turning on the light; but she would wake Tikki up and more  importantly, she did not want to see the circles under her eyes. Not again. 

She was hot, and that sole idea brought her back a week ago, to her fight against Flamethrower.  _ Not again. I just want to sleep. To sleep. Please. Please.  _

And then, boom. Her body bounced on the bed. 

Something had fallen graciously on her mattress, probably from her window. Marinette gasped  for air, about to scream in terror. A super-villain? A thief? A kidnapper sent by Hawkmoth? 

“Tikki, spots...” 

“Isn’t it a nice evening, m’lady?” a familiar voice whispered happily. 

_ No? Yes? No?  _ Marinette thought.  _ Impossible!  _ There was only one person in this city to call her  this way, and this person was... 

“Chat Noir? What in the world...” 

“I followed you. On the roofs.” her partner explained. 

“B-But... How? You cannot...” 

Instinctively, she extended a hand in front of her and the silhouette on the bed moved forward.  Her fingers touched the hair of this newcomer, and she clearly recognized two pieces of fabric  on both sides of the head. Cat ears.  Chat Noir cleared his throat. 

“Roofs have no mailboxes, m’lady. There’s no way I could guess your name from there. I just  saw you coming inside through this window, that’s it. Your secret identity is not what I’m  looking for tonight anyway.” 

“ How  long were you on my roof?” Marinette asked nervously. 

“Since you came back here,” Chat Noir answered. 

“So you heard the conversation with my Kwami?” she said, anxiety piercing through her voice. 

Tikki mentioned her names several times. Master Fu warned her, though: catastrophes were  meant to happen if Chat Noir and she knew each other's identities. Her heart was racing in  panic. 

“Just the part about pandas..." said Chat Noir in an amused tone. "It’s true that they share black  dots with ladybugs, but red suits you better than white, m’lady.” 

“If you weren’t looking for my identity, why are you here?” Marinette asked, too tired to think  of a way to answer his compliment. 

“Oh, uh... I was just checking if you were sleeping. That’s... all, actually.” 

Marinette’s eyes widened when she heard Chat Noir’s more serious tone, as he cautiously  scooted closer to her on the bed. She silently thanked the darkness for serving as  a  temporary  mask, both to hide her secret identity and her cheeks that had turned bright red. 

“What ?” 

“Given how tired you were earlier, I guessed you suffered from insomnia... So I came to check  if my assumptions were true. In a room where we cannot see each other, there’s no risk, am I  right?” 

Marinette could not deny. She heard Chat Noir’s Miraculous beeping, but even if he  untransformed right now, she would not be able to see his face. Usually, she was the one in  charge  of  planning strategies and plans; but she had to admit that her partner surprised her  with his cleverness. 

“You know... I also heard you speak about nightmares...” Chat Noir said softly. 

“Ah...  That, ” she muttered. 

Marinette could not tell if  it  was shame, fear or tiredness that made her eyes tear up. 

“Chat Noir... You know, I wish this was not happening but... since we  fought  Flamethrower,  I...” 

“No need to explain, m’lady. I understand.” 

Marinette let out a trembling sigh, unable to put into words the gratitude she felt toward her  partner  in that  precise moment. She had no doubt: if Chat Noir said he understood her feelings,  he meant it. He had a lot of flaws, but he was not a liar.  She briefly wondered what Chat Noir was going through in his own life to understand her  insomnia problems so well, but tiredness was already clouding her mind. 

“That’s why I’m here, right?” he added gently. 

“Huh?” 

“I don’t mean to brag, but I can be a rather comfortable pillow when I want to.” 

She felt Chat Noir’s gentle touch on her arm, and she got the message. Somewhere in the back  of  her mind, she wondered if she should avoid such interactions, without any mask or  costumes. It was not safe, Tikki would certainly disapprove.  But on the other hand, she was tired. So tired that she felt herself falling on the top of Chat Noir,  her muscles still sore from her fight against Monsieur Pigeon. 

“I promise, m’lady, nothing will disturb your sleep tonight. You’re safe , ” Chat Noir murmured. 

Marinette already  felt  her eyelids become heavier as he added: 

“I’ll be watching.” 

She wanted to answer that she  did not doubt  it, but  sleep felled her like a mace . 

For the first time since her fight against Flamethrower, settled in Chat Noir’s arms, Marinette  slept  without nightmares. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my super-awesome co-translator, PhoenixPlume! And thank y'all for reading! Do not hesitate to share your impressions :)

“Claws out.”

Adrien silently slipped inside his bedroom as sunshine started to illuminate the place where he was supposed to have spent the night in. His Kwami appeared next to him, his tiny paws on his hips as he stared at him sternly.

“Honestly, Adrien, you know I am not fond of lecturing you, but last night was completely…”

“…Awesome? Romantic? Comforting?” the boy suggested.

“I was about to say unreasonable,” Plagg replied.

Adrien ignored his Kwami and pressed the snooze button of his alarm clock, which would have woken him up if he had actually slept in his own bed. He ran a hand over his face tiredly. Plagg did not lecture him often but he was right, Adrien knew it.

Yet, he did not regret  a second of this night. After the death of his mother, he  too had  gone through nights of insomnia, fighting against sleepiness to avoid nightmares as much as possible. He also knew the struggle of being sleepy all day long. When he had seen Ladybug hit that chimney because of her lack of sleep, he needed to be sure –  so he  had followed her.

He lacked the vocabulary to describe how much he enjoyed what happened next.

“Do you at least realize you could have discovered each others’ identities at any moment?” Plagg continued. “That would have been the end of everything!”

“You tried to tell me at least fifteen times when my transformation ended last night…” Adrien sighed.

Of course, after some time, Chat Noir’s transformation expired. Ladybug and  he had  just stayed there in their civilian forms, dozing in each other’s arms in total darkness. He still found it hard to believe that he, Adrien Agreste, held an untransformed Ladybug in his arms – the girl under the mask, the one he had been in love with for so long. It seemed unreal, and yet… 

“I still don’t know anything about her, okay?” he objected when he saw Plagg opening his mouth to lecture him again. “It was just to help her. It was… for the sake of Parisians’ safety.”

What he would never say to his Kwami, however, was that the desire to discover her identity had perhaps crossed his mind once or twice during the night. Turning on a small light, just to slightly light up the room and gather clues about who Ladybug might be as a civilian…

Fortunately, the weight of his partner against him prevented him from moving. He only dared to shift away at six in the morning, when he had to go home in order to avoid Nathalie and his father’s fury if he was not found in his bed.

He undid the bedsheets to give the illusion he spent the night in his room, before adding:

“It was only because Ladybug was exhausted that she authorized this kind of thing to happen anyway. My lady in her normal state of mind is too rational to let that happen. I don’t think it will ever happen again, so don’t worry.”

_ Never again, huh… _

His heart clenched just thinking about it, but he did not have the time to imagine how her partner had felt about  last  night: the door opened wide  revealing Nathalie, always impeccably dressed even at such an early hour.

“Adrien. It is time for school. Please prepare yourself quickly.”

The boy tried to look as sleepy as possible  to divert the attention of Nathalie’s careful eyes, which routinely scanned the room.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

* * *

“It’s a miracle! Dupain-Cheng’s alarm clock actually worked this morning! Everyone, make a wish!” Chloe chuckled as Marinette entered the classroom.

While Chloe’s cackling still echoed through the school, Adrien did not have the time to turn around that he and Nino were jostled by Alya, Mylène, Juleka, Alix and Rose, running at full speed to welcome their friend.

“Marinette!”

“Did you fall  out of your bed?” 

“Are you sick?”

“Did you mix up your father’s instant coffee with your Nesquik? Is it why you look so awake this morning?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if this coffee had a slightly burnt taste then!”

“Chloé!” 

“What, what did I say?” 

Adrien could not help but glance at Marinette. The fires caused by Flamethrower were a painful memory for everyone, even if Ladybug magically repaired his damage. No one had forgotten how the Dupain-Cheng bakery almost went up in smoke, and Marinette, who had often been late before the fires, was now even later to class than usual.

She often had bits of plaster dust in her hair or a bit of soot at the edge of her nose. Reconstruction work at her apartment  was probably more  complicated than he had originally thought.

Adrien tried to make his way through Marinette’s very concerned friends to greet her. After all, they were friends, now  too , weren’t they? They went to the cinema together, and Marinette had been a lifesaver when she’d indirectly invited him to each of her outings with Alya and Nino through videoconference when his father did not allow him to go home.

“Marinette! You look well this morning!”

The girl’s cheeks became scarlet. Adrien saw her shaking her arms in positions he had never imagined possible.

“What? Me, looking well? No, you look well! I mean, uh, no, you don’t look well, I look well, of course, and…”

Adrien could not help but smile  at the show she was giving him. How could she find the strength to be so comical when she almost lost all she  had ever  known ? This girl was definitely a funny one.

“You’re always so hilarious, Marinette!” he noted. 

He thought he heard someone facepalm (Alya, perhaps) but he did not  know why , it was true . Marinette’s cheeks lit up even more, and he noticed she carefully avoided his gaze. Adrien smiled at her. 

“You know, I  haven’t been back to the bakery since the fire, but…” (he noticed that Marinette’s smile had frozen) “If my father allows, maybe we could play video games together? You know, like we did last time?”

He knew it was probably wishful thinking – as he highly doubted his father would ever give him  permission – but he certainly had not expected Marinette to practically shout at him:

“Absolutely not!”

Her shout was so  emphatic that it interrupted every  conversation in the classroom. Everyone turned to them while Adrien ran a hand in the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“Huh… Very well, then.”

Miss Bustier entered the room, and he went back to his seat. Nino, next to him, glanced at him, his eyes clearly  filled with pity  sighing, “Girls…”

* * *

What the blonde teenager did not know was that two rows behind him, at Marinette’s desk, a fuss was occurring, an even stronger fuss than usual, actually.

“It’s a disaster, Alya! A total disaster! Marinette whined quietly.

“I  agree, ” Alya asserted. “Why  _ did _ you react  that way? Adrien is already very  chill about your weirdness, but… Hey, Marinette, what are you doing?”

Her eyes widened at the sight of her friend muttering quietly like a madman.

“What in the world are you doing right now?”

“I’m praying.”

“Praying for what?”

“To thank heavens,  Brahma,  Buddha , Allah, Krishna, Elohim, and all the other divinities for the fact that Adrien did not notice my concealer,” Marinette answered with a desperate expression as she slumped on her desk.

“Is your whining over yet? I already told you, your concealer can barely be seen. Besides…” Alya said as she slid a finger right under Marinette’s eyes. “It looks like you put less concealer on than usual, am I right?”

Marinette, chin resting on the desk, grimaced. How could she explain herself?

Alya knew everything – or at least, everything that did not involve a tight bodysuit with polka dots and a feline partner. She knew  about the nightmares, she knew  about the insomnia, she  even  knew  about the eighteen layers of concealer she put on to hide the circles under her eyes.

Yet, she did not want to be responsible for indirect murder if Alya learned she had slept with someone in order to avoid nightmares. She also didn’t want to  have to kill her friend a second time  if she learned that someone  had  actually been Chat Noir.

To be completely honest, Marinette herself still struggled to believe it. Had last night really happened? She was so sleepy, she was starting to wonder if she had dreamt about sleeping against a very, very big cat. It had been soft, warm, and comforting. Her weird hypothesis sounded almost more logical than the one in which Chat Noir had slipped through her window to hold her until she fell asleep. 

Finally, she still struggled to believe last night’s other miracle: she slept, and moreover, without nightmares. 

Instead of revealing all of this, she  simply muttered:

“I… I finally slept through  the night.”

“Well, it’s  like a miracle! You look  so much better  now \--”

A smile appeared on Marinette’s lips…

“--But not good enough to have normal reactions in front of Adrien.”

…and it disappeared almost immediately.

“It’s okay. Things should  get better with one or two more nights of sleep, right?” Alya said, shrugging. “Once you get there, you’ll be able to explain  to him, you had to move because of the fires and--”

“No way!” Marinette gasped, just like she  had  gasped in front of Adrien a few minutes ago.

“Why not? Why should you be ashamed of your apartment getting destroyed by a supervillain's flames?”

Marinette sighed. She still found it difficult to admit the fire  had affected her more than others. Usually, she was the one cheering everyone up – but  since the fires, everyone got to see her in total panic.  Now everyone was so worried…

That was why she decided to keep the destruction of her apartment to herself. She did not want to  cause even more concern  for her – Alya was the only one who  knew . Mayor Bourgeois told them  the cleaning and repairing  of their apartment would not take more than a few days. She had to  be strong if only to prove herself that she was the same person  in and out of her red and black mask.

“Just promise me you’ll keep all of this a secret until we can live in the apartment again!” Marinette begged.

“Of course, what kind of friend do you think I am? Just try to use these days away from home to sleep again for a bit, okay? I know you; you’ll be back on your feet in four or five nights.”

Five nights… The words echoed in Marinette’s mind, but she did not have the time to think about it as a shrill alarm resonated throughout the school.

“Super-villain alert, class!” Miss Bustier yelled.

Marinette saw a flock of pigeons flying over Notre-Dame through the window, and she sighed. What was the Latin  phrase Miss Bustier  liked to use in this kind of situation?... Ah, yes. ‘ _ Bis repetita.’ _

* * *

“Bye-bye, little butterfly!”

Chat Noir watched his lady wave her yo-yo in front of the Louvre’s pyramid to repair the damage caused by Monsieur Pigeon for the umpteenth time. While he was  placing Monsieur Ramier on a bench nearby, he wondered if his partner and  he should change  their jobs  to specialize in cleaning  pigeon droppings. At this stage, it would be almost more profitable than simply saving Paris.

“You know what we told you last time, Monsieur Ramier. Psychological help could help you to not be so invested in the slightest problem encountered by your dear pigeons, you know?”

“I tried, Chat Noir, I tried…” the pigeon man winced, always a little in shock after each Akumatization.

“I know you can do it!” the feline hero cheered as he brandished his stick, knowing full well that he would probably have the same conversation with the man the very next day. “That being said, see you la--”

“Chat Noir, wait!” Ladybug’s voice  called out behind him.

He made an emergency landing on a roof, where his partner reached him with a few yo-yo moves. He smiled joyfully at her.

“Nice landing, m’lady,” he could not help but comment as she knowingly avoided a chimney.

“I need to talk to you.”

_ There she was _ , Chat Noir thought as he was mentally preparing himself. He tried his best to engrave every moment of last night in his mind because he had a hunch that it would never happen again.

He was so convinced of it that he almost fainted when he heard Ladybug quickly say as if words were burning her:

“Tonight. Same place. Same time as yesterday?”

She paused and Chat Noir was almost sure he saw her blushing under the mask when she added even faster:

“Please.”

“Pardon? For real? Oh dear, I might be the luckiest cat of-- I mean--” he corrected. “Yes, of course, m’lady.”

“However, I do have a few conditions.”

Chat Noir nodded. At this point, he could have agreed to sleep with her in a full onesie if she asked him to. Ladybug raised a finger.

“First of all, you’ll come only when there  is total darkness. That way, there’s no risk we can see each other, even if we’re not transformed.”

She raised a second finger.

“You’ll have to promise me you will not look for any information in my room. In exchange, I swear I will not snoop around either.”

Chat Noir winced. It was as if Ladybug felt his urge to  clear up the obscurity  by finding clues that might point him to who she might be. But he knew his lady was right – so he would bend to her will, as always. 

“What else?” he asked.

“Five nights. No more.” Ladybug firmly announced, obviously trying to make it as unromantic as possible.

“Five nights…”

He would have been just as happy if she announced that he  had won the national lottery. It was much more than he had ever dared to hope for. In front of Ladybug’s dignified attitude,  keeping everything as professional as possible, he had to curb his joy. She reached out her hand to him as their Miraculouses were beeping faster and faster.

“Deal?” she said.

“…Do you really trust me?”

Ladybug averted her eyes and Chat Noir had to refrain himself from melting in front of the sight of her strong superhero shell cracking. He wondered how she could not realize how adorable she was.

“I just thought the safety of Paris against Hawkmoth’s super-villains might depend on the quality of my sleep, that’s all.”

“So, we’re doing this for the sake of Paris, right, m’lady?”  smirked Chat Noir.

“For the sake of Paris, Chat Noir,” Ladybug answered professionally. “Deal.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This chapter took far too long to be published... I was on holidays, but now I'm back!   
> Just a little translation note: in French, when we call someone we don't really know the name of, we call them "Truc", "Machin" or "Machine" (Thing, thingy...). Also, in the French version of MLB, Chat Noir calls Ladybug Bugginette instead of Bugaboo. When you mix the two, it makes Machinette! I know it might sound a little weird, but it is important for the following parts. Thank you for your understanding!
> 
> And once again, thanks to my awesome translator, Phoenix!

As she paced around, Marinette – or Ladybug, since she transformed for the occasion – was starting her thirty-fifth tour of the room. To say that she was overwhelmed by doubt was an understatement. Chat Noir was supposed to come in five minutes now, and she was wondering if she had made the right choice.

After all, she was only fourteen, almost fifteen, and during all these years, she had never slept with anyone but herself. Even if Chat Noir was still her partner, he was a boy – and she did not even know his age!

What if she snored? What if she drooled on Chat Noir’s costume? She did not even have her favourite pyjama on. The more seconds went by, the less she felt being Ladybug and the more she felt like her very distraught true self. If it had been Adrien, then maybe she could have managed – but now…

She felt a disaster incoming.

As she wondered if she was not going to abandon herself to a stroke, three discreet blows were heard on the  attic window above her head, making her yelp in a not very superheroic way. She rushed to all the potential light sources in her room to turn them off, before running to bed and crossing her legs in a more professional manner – even if technically, Chat Noir had no way of guessing her appearance anymore.

  
  


Five nights, Marinette, she thought.  _ For Paris’ safety, for Paris’ safety, for Paris’ safe… _

She cleared up her throat. 

“Come in!”

The window opened and a silhouette slid into her room. The way it elegantly fell on her feet indicated Chat Noir’s arrival. As the super-heroine opened her mouth to talk, she found her face buried in what she assumed to be a huge bouquet of flowers.

“For you, m’lady !” the feline hero said cheerfully.

“…What’s that, chaton?”

“Well, it would be rude coming to our first date empty-handed, isn’t it? I hesitated for a while between this and chocolates, but I ended up thinking that…”

“Wait, wait. A date? We’re only going to sleep!”

She vaguely distinguished Chat Noir’s silhouette bending his head piteously, before standing up again.

“Correction: you’re the one going to sleep!”

“And you, what are you going to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious? My duty is to protect you from any nightmare that would try to come close to your pretty head. Cats do not sleep a lot at night; you should know that.” 

As the feline boy stuffed the bouquet into her arms and jumped inside the bed, Ladybug silently admired Chat Noir’s ability to brush off each of her rejections as if nothing happened.

“Okay! Your very own Chat Noir is here to warm your sheets, so get ready for the best night of your life, Bugabo. I’m waiting.”

Ladybug felt her cheeks become as red as her suit. She did not really like the hidden meaning one could hear behind “the best night of your life”, but he was not in the wrong; it had been so long since she had two decent nights of sleep in a row, that getting eight hours of sleep at once seemed like an epic event to her.

Well. Now was the time, she thought.

“Spots off.”

Hidden behind her closet, she had planned this location to prevent Chat Noir from seeing her identity with the light that emanated each time she switched identities. Tikki appeared by her side, and Marinette put a finger on her tiny mouth. Obviously, her Kwami did not approve of the idea of spending a night untransformed with Chat Noir, but she was

eventually convinced by remembering the brutal encounter between her owner and chimneys. 

Marinette was wearing her usual pyjamas: a white tank top with pink polka dots, and pale pink pants. Yet when she imagined herself joining Chat Noir in bed, she began to wish she were wearing something less… revealing. A onesie, maybe?

_ This is the last time I listen to Alya’s suggestions… _ she thought piteously. 

“Are you ready, m’lady?”

“I brushed my teeth, went to the toilet, drank some herbal tea before sleeping…” she listed.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t find something else to do in order to go to bed. She undid her ponytails before announcing very seriously, as a soldier ready to leave for front:

“I’m… I’m ready!”

“Finally!” Chat Noir exclaimed, his lively tone clearly stating he was not going through the same thing as Marinette.

Marinette walked towards the bed, then stopped herself. No. Wait. Actually, she was not ready at all. 

“Wait!”

“What now m’lady?”

“We need to set some rules.”

“Don’t we already have some?”

“Not those rules! Rules… For the next five nights” she felt compelled to clarify.

For a second, Marinette wondered what Chat Noir was thinking of this sudden lack of self-confidence, which was not exactly Ladybug’s trademark. With the darkness, it was impossible for her to see his emotions. Anyway, that was not the most important right now: she would not join Chat Noir in the bed until she had established some strict rules.

“Alright. What are your demands, m’lady?”

“Uh…” Marinette hesitated. “Alright, I will sleep in your arms, but… but that’s it! No kiss. No wandering hands.”

“What image do you have of me, exactly?” Chat Noir said in a slightly offended voice.

“…and besides, we sleep in the same bed as… partners, okay? Nothing more.”

Obviously, Marinette could not tell her super-heroic partner that until then, her perceptions of her first night with a boy included things such as Adrien Agreste, candles, soft music, a few roses and a freshly adopted hamster in a cage in the corner. Outside of these parameters, she found it hard to envision how romantic a night could be. The record needed to be set straight away; that night was like a movie kiss. It would not count. It was the only way Marinette found to convince herself that she was not betraying Adrien. 

Little did the girl knew she would have done Chat Noir less harm if she had hit him in the head with her yo-yo. 

“As partners” Chat Noir repeated in a much less cheerful tone. “Of course.”

“Uh, then…” Marinette continued. “Do not call me m’lady or Bugaboo when you’re here. I’m not transformed. It makes me feel weird.”

“What name do you want me to use, then? I assume you do not plan to tell me your real name, do you?”

“Find something else! Thing, machine, someone… anything but m’lady.”

“Machine, Bugaboo… No, even better,  Bugginette ” Chat Noir said pensively. “If you mix the two, you get Machinette.”

Chat Noir did not have the time to elaborate on that new surname; a pink slipper flew directly into his face. 

“Ouch! That slipper in my beautiful face was particularly nasty!” the young hero complained as he repressed a flicker of defiance.

“If you don’t respect the rules, you might see my slipper quite often! Do not make things worse, Chat Noir!”

Marinette heard her partner sigh, and she felt overwhelmed by a sudden wave of regrets. As Ladybug, she would not have dared to hit Chat Noir, and now she was throwing her slippers at him…

“M’la… Whatever you want me to call you. Why don’t you just join me in bed? I promise to respect all of your rules, if only so I don’t get to know The Slipper once again” he swore, emphasizing the important character Marinette’s slipper was to become.

He was right. The sun was rising earlier and earlier these days, and Chat Noir would leave the room accordingly. She pursed her lips.

“Well, ready or not… Here I come!” she announced as if she were about to commit something terrible.

Mentally apologizing to Adrien, who must surely have been sleeping peacefully unaware that the girl he would love someday was about to betray him to someone else, she slowly made her way to bed like a condemned man on the scaffold. However, her only foot remaining in a slipper got caught in the bouquet of flowers brought by Chat Noir, and she fell down – on her bed, and on her partner’s chest.

“I knew you’d fall in my arms someday!” Chat Noir could not help but joked.

He narrowly dodged Marinette's second slipper before patiently helping her get more comfortable in bed. She felt him place her on his torso, before pulling up the duvet on both of them. With her in her pyjamas, installed on Chat Noir still engrossed in his tight superhero outfit, the situation seemed almost comical, but at least she was finally in bed.

_ Okay. Here we go _ , Marinette thought. 

A heavy silence set in between the two, but the young girl paid little attention to it. She was too busy mourning her first night in Adrien's arms, with the candles, music, dim light and the hamster that would be called, what's his name again.... It was while searching for the name she was supposed to give the little animal that she realized something.

“Are you purring?”

“Hey, do not throw another slipper at me? I’m a cat, I can’t help it.”

“Do you know what ladybugs do?” she hissed. “When they feel attacked, they…”

“I did not expect you to be so nervous, m’la… Well…” he corrected himself. “It’s just me, it is not as if I was about to eat you. Have I ever forced you to do something?”

His voice grew softer on this last sentence and Marinette’s heart tightened. He was right, she knew it. He had tried many things since their superhero debut, but Chat Noir always stopped at the slightest refusal from her.

“But… But what if I snore?” she asked.

“There could not be sweetest music to my feline ears!”

“What if I take the whole blanket?”

“I could sleep in the North Pole for you!”

“What if I take all the room in the bed?”

“I can make myself really small, you know?”

She felt Chat Noir’s hand on her shoulder. It was a strange feeling to feel this gloved hand on her skin revealed by her tank top, but she felt strangely reassured - a bit like the day before, when she fell asleep on the top of him. 

"It's going to be all right" he murmured. 

She could feel the looks on Adrien's various posters hanging over her in the dark, and she could not shake the feeling of betraying her great love. Yet, she wanted to believe it. Chat Noir’s weird purring made her feel drowsy.

“How can you be so nice to me when I'm not Ladybug at this very moment?" she mumbled with her eyes closed.

“With or without the mask, you're still my lady, aren't you?”

She wanted to scold him for the nickname, but  her eyelids were far too heavy. By dint of her restlessness all day long, whether it was because of Adrien or Monsieur Pigeon, she felt as if she could not move her little finger. And yet, she was confident. Because Chat Noir promised.

She heard her partner's voice whispering from far, far away:

"Claws out.”

As she saw a green light under her eyelids, she realized something. With all the nervousness she had accumulated during the evening and her little squabbles with Chat Noir, she hadn't had time to think for a second about flamethrower, flames, fires and fear. 

She suddenly felt a wave of affection for the one who was holding her at that moment. 


End file.
